


Fire Among Wolves

by BoPeepWithNoSheep



Category: Naruto
Genre: And Tsume is the Head Bitch In Charge, Inuzuka is a boss family, Mimi wants to be a good mom and Tsume's gonna help her be one, Multi, Single Parents, Tags to be added, Unplanned Pregnancy, navigating ninja life and single parenthood
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-09
Updated: 2018-04-12
Packaged: 2019-03-02 20:28:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13325898
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BoPeepWithNoSheep/pseuds/BoPeepWithNoSheep
Summary: Inuzuka Mimi knew she was wild, even for an Inuzuka. She'd never figured it would get her into this much trouble, but the Inuzuka are a family and pack protects pack.





	1. Chapter 1

Inuzuka Mimi knew she’s what other Inuzuka would call wild--which was, of course, saying something coming from the Inuzuka. Folks outside the clan had less charitable names for people like her but frankly, she didn’t really care. She was a competent tracker and a special jounin for her talent, her clan was proud of her, and she was enjoying the life she might lose at any moment to the fullest.

And maybe, enjoying a little _too_ liberally at times.

One missed period was no big deal, she’d told herself, she was plenty active and her last mission plenty stressful and maybe it was the lingering effect of preemptive anti-menstruation jutsu she’d used before the mission. They’d been running half the tracker nin in the village ragged in the wake of the Uchiha’s massacre to no avail. No one could find hide nor hair of Uchiha Itachi--that they had sent her out despite her specialization in sight-hunting meant they were far too desperate to have made any progress.

The problem was, two missed periods when she was off-mission...well, that was a little more problematic. It had her scrambling, doing math in her head and trying to recall which ex lined up with the timeline. This lead to an entirely different problem that she wasn’t equipped to deal with.

Mimi needed to talk to Tsume.

* * *

 

“Auntie Tsume,” Her whine was worthy of any canine as she slumped, face first, onto her clan leader’s couch, “I _probably_ fucked up a little.”

It didn’t elicit much sympathy, only a raised eyebrow from the older woman. Mimi was lucky Hana was off at her medic lessons and Kiba was at the academy. Kiba might have been too young to really understand the gravity of Mimi’s situation Hana certainly wasn’t. Granted, Mimi wasn’t ashamed of her action, far from it really, but this kind of issue just wasn’t something she wanted to burden a promising young genin with.

Tsume sighed, clicking her tongue and nudging Mimi over with her foot, “How probably are we talking? And fucked up like ‘I need some time off missions’ or ‘I need a long-term out of village mission’ you’re being annoyingly vague, Mimi.” The older woman settled in beside Mimi, reaching out and resting a hand on her younger clanmate’s head. Mimi really loved that about Tsume--She never asked ‘why did you do something so stupid, Mimi?’ just ‘what do you need, Mimi?’

Screwing up her courage Mimi craned her neck so she was actually looking at Tsume, “Moderately probably--And, uh, did you take missions when you were pregnant?”

The question elicited a bark of laughter from Tsume and Mimi felt a light pressure on her head as the older woman’s fingers carded through her hair. That had been easier than she thought, thankfully, and she hadn’t even really needed to say anything directly. Inuzuka’s weren’t cowards but...but sometimes things could be hard to face and even the bravest had to sidestep, just a little.

“I stayed in the field ‘till the medics had to drag me off active duty.” Which was definitely a relief--Mimi never felt more alive than when she was running and hunting with Shiromaru and Kiiromaru. She’d still have a few months left of that, she’d have to be careful maybe take lower level missions for a bit but it wouldn’t be forever, just until the pup was born and then she could be up and fighting again.

Tsume took Mimi’s prolonged silence as an invitation for more chatter, which she appreciated having someone else direct her train of thought was nice. Otherwise, Mimi would probably still be screaming internally face down on the couch.

“So is the lucky bastard gonna make you an honorable woman or are you joining the ranks of us single moms?” The lack of condemnation was nice, Tsume had been through this before, raised two kids with no father around and they weren’t any worse off for it. Mimi wasn’t really looking forward to telling her former genin team, because she knew she was in for at least four rounds of ‘I told you so’s over this. It wasn’t as if she’d INTENDED for this to happen, everyone made the occasional mistake hers just happened to be ending up pregnant--At least she hadn’t ended up dead, in the grand scheme of things this was a pretty minor shinobi mistake.

With a heavy sigh, Mimi finally rolled over, relishing in the gentle sensation of Tsume’s hand scratching at the crown of her head, “That’s the thing--I’m not really sure.”

Another raised eyebrow, but no negative comment Mimi could live with that. Tsume wasn’t judging her for her tendency towards multiple partners she was probably judging for not keeping track of things better. Which, honestly? Yeah, that was a big mistake--Not a deadly mistake, it couldn’t be, Mimi reminded herself. “Huh? Well, wait a month or so and I’ll go with you for a paternity test if you want it, they’re usually good for the kid’s future health even if you cut the sperm donor out of your life.”

It was easier _not_ to think about the possible father of the pup slowly developing in her gut, “Tsume, I mean I _really_ might have fucked up?”

Finally, a bit of apprehension dawned on Tsume’s face and for a split second, Mimi hoped she wouldn’t have to actually say it. That somehow, Tsume would pull a Yamanaka and read her mind and she’d never had to actually talk about why this was so terrifying for reasons besides the whole ‘I’m going to be in charge of a living breathing tiny person in eight months’ issue.

“Is the dad a Hyuuga? That complicates things a lot, but it’s happened before. We’ll have to wait and see if the kid’s got the byakugan but I won’t let them take your kid.”

Damn--So close but not _quite_ \--Mimi would actually have to _say it_.

“That’s not--I...I think the dad was an Uchiha.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mimi and Tsume have a discussion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As a note I just want to say that generally, the chapters for this fic will be pretty short, I hope that's not too off-putting for folks.

“Who else have you told?”

It was _jarring_ to hear Tsume’s voice switch from Auntie Tsume to Tsume Inuzuka, Clan Head in all of five seconds. Especially when Tsume was already hooking her arms under Mimi’s armpits and pulling her up to look the younger Inuzuka in the eyes like she was fifteen again and about to be grounded for beating up some Hyuuga snot for accusing her of having fleas.

This was it, this was how Mimi died, not from some stray missing nin’s kunai but from the unbearably intense mom-stare of the Aunt who’d practically taken her in after her parents died in the third war. She couldn’t bare to consider coming to Tsume might have been a mistake, the only other person she could think of going to was Shibi-sensei but he’d been busy. So it wasn’t a _mistake_ , it would just be the death of her--That was fair. “Nobody--Auntie Tsume, this is _embarrassing_. I’m almost two months pregnant and I can’t figure out who’s the dad.”

Tsume was calm-- _mission calm_ \--and it had alarm bells going off in Mimi’s head. This was bad, this was worse than bad and she’d been able to ignore it until now--Until she’d be confronted by someone she loved and trusted and they’d gotten serious. “Mimi, that’s not what I mean. Have you told _anyone_ who you think the father is? Have you seen any medics?”

Slowly, Mimi shook her head. She felt like a child, and let herself be swept into Tsume’s comforting side hug. Her face tucked into the taller woman’s shoulder like her clan leader could shield her from the whole world.

“Good, cousin Shita still works at the hospital, we’ll set up an appointment with her.”

Mimi laughed because she was almost positive if she did anything else she might cry, “Isn’t she a _trauma_ surgeon?”

Her Aunt shrugged, as if something so small would keep one Inuzuka from helping another, they were all pack and pack _never_ left pack behind. If Mimi needed help she knew she could rely on her family, it was why she’d come to Tsume in the first place. Her clan head was an unstoppable force ready to shatter whatever immovable object got in her way if a family member were hurting on the other side. It was the good thing about the Inuzuka, what made Mimi _proud_ to be an Inuzuka.

“She’ll make exceptions for family. I assume Kiiromaru and Shiromaru know?”

Hadn’t _that_ been an awkward realization when she had woken up to Kiiromaru dragging her winter quilt into her bedroom and Shiromaru carefully arranging her couch cushions around her on the bed in a nest ‘for the pup.’ That statement had woken Mimi up faster than any cold bucket of water or sharp flare of chakra ever could. Had her stumbling out of bed, tripping over pillows and barrelling into her bathroom to fumble under the counter for a pregnancy test left over from her first scare.

Of course, this one turned out to be less of a scare and more of a, well, _pregnancy_.

“They’re _sort of_ the ones that confirmed it for me, apparently they can _smell_ it.”

It shouldn’t have been surprising, even if they were sighthounds instead of scent hounds their sense of smell was still better than any human and even most Inuzuka’s without the aid of chakra. Furthermore, Kiiro and Shiro were her partners, they’d all known each other since they were pups and were more intuned with her scent than any other living creature. They were all practically three parts of one whole ninja, a functioning unit, the boys knew if she had a cold a week before she ever got the sniffles, of course, they’d notice she’d gotten herself knocked up.

An appraising look was sent her way, with Tsume’s eyes lingering over her stomach for a brief moment before her aunt gently tousled her hair, “Well, you’re a little farther along than I thought but it’s fine. I’d say you’re good to take B-ranks for another month if you’ve got partners but after that wind down to C-ranks ‘till they stop giving you missions when you really start showing.”

That was comforting, definitely comforting. At least for a little while, Mimi could just keep on keeping on like everything were normal. Like stupid charming Takumi hadn’t been gutted by his own packmate, leaving her with the worst break-up gift of any ex before him. Uchiha always had to have a flair for the dramatic, couldn’t just be _normal_ and carve some insults into her ANBU mask or spread rumors that she had fleas.--She was crying, Mimi realized--And ranting out loud but her brain only registered that fact when Tsume’s hands cradled her face, brushing tears away,

  
“Shush now, it’s _okay_. Mimi, it’ll be okay, I promise we’ll take care of this, you and your pup will be just fine.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emergency team meeting go!

“Ne, Mimi, why the emergency meeting? Is this about another breakup? Whose heart did you break this time, not that poor Akimichi girl, I thought you two were doing well.”

Her former genin teammate, Suzume, was a worrier by nature--something that Mimi had a tendency to bring out in force with her own rather brash nature. Not that Mimi really minded being fussed over, it was nice sometimes but Suzume’s brand of mother-henning was a beast all its own. That was probably what made her such a good academy teacher if Mimi really thought about it--Which she didn’t often. Why Suzume wanted to surround herself with brats that weren’t even pack still baffled her a little bit.

“Suzu, I broke up with Yoko months ago.”

Akimichi Yoko had been a nice enough girl, but she just hadn’t been able to deal with Shiromaru and Kiiromaru. Sure, Mimi could understand why it was hard to live with such nosy ninken _without_ them being tall enough to snatch whatever unattended food was left out. Food thieving and dog hating, they had been deal breakers for both clans--Their break up had been amicable enough but Mimi was almost certain that the young woman had warned the rest of her clanmates off her and her ninken. A shame really, the Akimichi physique was a dangerously underappreciated one.

“That Nara? Tenta?”

At this question Mimi rolled her eyes, “You mean _Tenri_ \--And no, we haven’t really thought about seriously getting back together since his promotion, he’s due for some long-term infiltration mission and I’m _not_ a long-distance kind of girl.” Tenri was if Mimi were being entirely honest with herself probably the best boyfriend she’d had in some time. The problem was both of them were more married to their jobs than they were to each other, not bad in theory but pretty bad in practice. Meshing well didn’t make much of a difference when Mimi’s pride couldn’t stand being stood up in favor of last-minute ANBU missions.

But he was a _good_ man, and the one she was hoping would show up on her paternity test.

Suzume seemed mildly confused as she counted on one hand while twirling her sake glass in the other, mumbling the last few names of those Mimi had shown interest in. Her eyes widened and she nearly spilled her drink as she leaned forward, voice desperate, “ _Please_ don’t tell me you hit on Gai again--”

Mimi cut her off with an offended huff and a hand slapped on the table, “It was _one_ time and I had a _concussion_ , you try resisting biceps like those when you’re nursing head trauma--And he was a _perfect_ gentleman, he said I was a little too young for him but he appreciated my good taste--”

Suzume snorted, “Because _he_ knows anything about _taste_.”

At the comment, Mimi couldn’t help but grin wolfishly as she saw her opportunity to rile up her teammate. Leaning into Suzume’s space her voice dropped to conspiratorial low tone, “Hey if someone could convince him into a more flattering haircut I would climb that man like a--”

“While I respect your right as an adult to make these decisions for yourself, for the sake of your teacher--Please, do not finish that sentence.”

Both women perked up as their sensei slid into the booth across from them, “Shibi-sensei!” Now all they were missing was one wayward squadmate but he’d already put in his rain check. It wasn’t surprising, he worked odd hours in hokage tower as of late despite his simple rank of an academy teacher chuunin. Daikoku had been pulled from the academy shortly after the Uchiha massacre, his possible insight into Uchiha Itachi’s mindset had been a much sought after asset among the various departments tasked with the missing nin’s retrieval. It could be _weeks_ yet before he was back on a normal academy to tower rotation.

Mimi leaned over the table, resting her elbows practically in the middle and her chin in her hands, “Alright, I guess I should get this over with--Auntie said it’s probably better you hear it from me and not somebody else--or the boys, because _believe me_ they’re probably more excited about this than anyone at this point.”

It was half the reason they weren’t with her tonight and were instead back home ‘helping’ Tsume watch after one of the newer litters. They’d only been convinced to leave her side when Tsume, an ‘experienced mother’, had insisted it would be good training for them for Mimi’s pup. Then they’d practically fallen over each other to get to the kennel, promising Mimi that they’d be the _very_ best babysitters she’d ever met. They were so excited about it, more than Mimi was yet considering the baby was mostly still a little ball of cells that she was struggling to understand was _real_.

Unfortunately, it made them a liability until Auntie Tsume could finish her damage control so big public outings were a no-no for her poor boys until then clan made a formal announcement of her pregnancy after the paternity test.

“You’re getting married!” Of course, it’s Suzume’s first thought, the woman had been wedding crazy herself ever since she and that Shimura woman at the academy had started flitting around each other. She slammed her cup of sake down so hard it sloshed onto her meticulously folded kimono sleeves, it made Mimi cringe and she could feel Shibi’s intense stare even if she couldn’t see his eyes to know for certain.

“No! Well, probably not, Tsume says I don’t have to if I don’t want to.”

Her teacher was the first one that seemed to connect the dots without being told if the choked sound he made mid-sip of his sake was any indication--Mimi was glad that her executive decision that this was definitely a sake kind of discussion and thus planning accordingly had been the right guess, besides good shinobi bars always had eavesdropping seals on their booths. Shibi’s face did something rather impressive, considering how high his eyebrows had risen into his hairline while his scowl practically shrank _into_ his face. Like it was exploding and imploding all at once, and honestly, that was about how Mimi’s last two weeks had gone so as bad as she felt for her sensei it was a rather _cathartic_ view.

“You’re _pregnant_.”

Without missing a beat, Mimi shrugged, “That’s what they’re _telling_ me, no visual evidence yet--I’m still a few weeks off from that.”

Not that Suzume or Daikoku were anything to scoff at but Shibi had _always_ been the brains of the team--Daikoku was the heavy hitter, Mimi was fast as lightning in a hunt, and Suzume the genjutsu specialist but Shibi was the one who’d actually coordinated them into an effective search and retrieval team--At least until Daikoku couldn’t quite make the cut to jounin and Suzume had always loved kids and being extended the invitation as head of kunoichi studies had been too tempting an offer to refuse.

Then Mimi had been cycled into the sensory squad until finally she’d been promoted to hunter-nin, and more quietly, ANBU. She was the only one who ever went on missions with Shibi-sensei anymore, their annual reunion D-rank tradition notwithstanding.

“Listen, Auntie Tsume and me are still keeping it under wraps, okay? So don’t spread it around but I wanted you guys to be the first to know. I’ll try and get a hold of Daikoku tomorrow if I can, otherwise, everybody else learns once I’ve gotten all of my, er, affairs settled, I guess. Gross, that sounds like I’m dying, I’m _definitely_ not dying, I’m just...I'm having a baby.”

Very slowly, as if he worried he might startle her Shibi reached over the table and placed a hand on her upper arm, “Are you _happy_ with that, Mimi?”

“I--Yeah, I think so. I mean, I’m still a little overwhelmed and I don’t think that’s gonna change any time soon but, uh, I’m good. Yeah, I’m good.” She wasn’t, she really wasn’t if things turned out the way she thought they were, but not for the reasons Shibi-sensei probably assumed. A kid hadn’t exactly been part of Mimi’s life plan for this stage in her life, that had been live fast, try not to die too young--And _that_ was what had gotten into this entire situation in the first place.

The baby itself though? That wasn’t the worst thing, it wasn’t even a bad thing, it was just _a_ thing. She wasn’t the first single Inuzuka mom, she certainly wouldn’t be the last so while she might pick up some ire from her higher-ups over the inconvenience of an unexpected maternity absence, only those with a personal deathwish would talk any shit to her face about the whole single parenthood deal. At least not anywhere that could lead back to Tsume, and given the number of ninken wandering the village at any given time, the clan had a larger range of hearing than most people would have guessed.

“It’s, uh, _just_ my kid though, I mean obviously it takes two to tango but there’s precedent in Inuzuka clan law about this kind of thing so no need for shovel talks just yet, or _ever_ depending on how everything turns out.”

The silence that stretched over the table was so awkward it made Mimi want to use kawarimi and leave them staring at a nearby barstool instead of an Inuzuka with her metaphorical tail between her legs. Shibi’s hand stayed on her arm, giving her wrist a gentle squeeze before he used his free hand to grab his sake glass and down the remainder in one go--It was rather impressive, all things considered, and it was a shame that it took her getting knocked up to see Shibi-sensei go at his sake like she was so fond of.

Except that she _couldn’t_ anymore and the fact that she’d abstained thus far in the evening had probably tipped off sensei more than anything else.

Suzume was the one who finally broke the silence, alway chattier than Shibi-sensei and Daikoku had been. In any other circumstances Mimi usually could go toe to toe in terms of the most talkative teammate but right now she would gladly bow out of the running.

“Well, that just means we’ll have to help you out instead, Shibi-sensei already has two children so I’m sure he’s a fount of child-rearing knowledge and anything he doesn’t know about the pregnancy itself you can ask Fuse.” Mimi nodded silently, content to let Suzume’s chatter wash over her and calm her fraying nerves, “And if you choose anyone besides Tsume over me as godmother we’re going to have words. I’m going to be the _best_ Aunt, oh maybe they’ll be in my class at the academy--Or Daikoku’s would be fine as well.”

It felt better, surrounded by two-thirds of her team, Shibi-sensei’s loose comforting grip on her wrist as she rested her head on Suzume’s shoulder. With all of them in her corner plus the Inuzuka maybe all of this would be okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, some of you might be thinking 'Bo, why did you put Shibi as having two kids? Who's Fuse?' the answers to those questions are simple. First, I'm a HUGE Dreaming of Sunshine fan and I've basically adopted SilverQueen's character Chiyako who is Shino's adorable baby sister who exists to keep up the 'all of team kurenai have siblings' theme. Second, Fuse is the name I've given Shino's mom that also comes from the story that Shino's name comes from, Nansō Satomi Hakkenden, the Aburame don't have as concrete naming structures as some of the other clans so it mostly fits in with the rest.

**Author's Note:**

> This is a new fic, not actually an SI OC, just some good old-fashioned regular ocs. Basically, I just found the fact that EVERY Uchiha was completely eliminated, it just seemed to me unlikely that with a clan of that size one or two bastards wouldn't slip through the cracks--and that's how you end up with Mimi and her bun in the oven.


End file.
